Perhaps the quote of this 131st Wimbledon fell from the lips of Gilles Müller after he scraped into the quarter-finals with a win over Rafael Nadal that could best be described as beyond his or anyone else’s expectations.
Drinking in the size of his achievement a couple of hours after that dramatic five-setter on a darkening No1 Court on Monday evening, the 34-year-old Luxembourgian said, “It was not easy to keep believing. But on the other hand, I didn’t have any regrets.”
Right there is the essence of why these players care about their sport. Some, obviously, are more passionate than others and give their all whatever the odds. A few are disillusioned from an early age and remain cynical throughout their careers, never quite believing but quick to indulge in regret. And one or two take for granted the privilege they have in earning a very good living playing a mere game.
The time for castigating Bernard Tomic over his lack of motivation has passed; it is more timely to celebrate the deeds of Müller and wonder – like he will do – if he can beat the No7 seed and former US Open champion, Marin Cilic, when the remaining eight players in the men’s draw resume battle on Wednesday.
The prize for the winner of that match is a semi-final against Sam Querrey or Andy Murray, and there can be little doubt the prevailing sentiment is for one more Müller miracle, which would make him the oldest semi-finalist since, well, last year. It has become deceptively easy to forget that Roger Federer turns 36 in August and he will start at least a short-priced favourite to beat Milos Raonic in his quarter-final.
Müller, then, would be only the eighth oldest semi-finalist in the Open era. Indeed, the age ceiling seems to be drifting north by the year. There were 48 men aged 30 or over at the start of the tournament; five are in the last eight: Müller, Federer, Murray, Tomas Berdych (31) and Novak Djokovic (30).
And we can be certain that all of them – including the 29-year-old Querrey and Cilic, 28, as well as the 26-year-old Raonic – are carrying an ailment or niggle. Murray’s has obsessed the nation more than the others, obviously, but he has not strayed from his conviction that his hip will last the distance if he reaches the final on Sunday.
In conversation after the more demanding experience of getting past the Frenchman Benoît Paire in the fourth round, the defending champion reflected on what has been a steady and discernible improvement in his hitting and movement – although there is no escaping that he still has a mini limp in his step between points.
“I’m probably a little more comfortable on a grass court than I am on the clay, but I was struggling going into the French Open,” he said. “There were a lot of doubts about my game and I had really struggled for quite a few months. The French Open [where he made the semi-finals for the fourth time] ended up being really important for me. I hadn’t played well at all in Madrid and Rome, and I was practising really badly.
“I knew coming in here that I was actually hitting the ball pretty well. I was just struggling a lot with my movement. That’s a huge part of my game. If that’s not going well, it’s going to affect me a lot. But I’m always a little bit calmer going into Wimbledon just because I love the conditions and I love playing on that court.”
Which is at odds with the opinion of Djokovic, who complained after beating Adrian Mannarino on Tuesday : “There’s a whole middle bit of the court along the service line [that is cut up]. Not very pleased to see that. The courts, honestly, are not that great this year. Many players feel that. Grass is probably the most complex surface to maintain. Its not easy and [the groundsmen] are trying their best. But I’ve played on better courts.”
Sometimes it seems the best players moan the most. Maybe they have greater expectations. Perhaps it is harder for them to cope with any weakness and easy to blame external forces. Or it could be the courts are as bad as Djokovic and several others have said over the past week.
But there are no level playing fields in sport. There is always something to tip the balance – and usually in favour of the player with the most talent. Looking down the list of those left in the fight, it is hard to go past Federer as the most gifted – but will his old legs last? Raonic might not be the one to test him to the limit in the quarters, but a fit Djokovic certainly would in the semi-finals and should be there on Sunday.
In the top quarter, Murray has been granted golden breathing space with Nadal’s defeat, whatever the sentimental merits of Müller, who probably will lose to Cilic. Murray should beat Querrey, despite the American’s giant-killing history, and he has invariably had the measure of Cilic.
Djokovic is 4-2 over Murray in their past six matches; Murray has won two of his three slams against his oldest rival. And the Serb is carrying a shoulder injury, as he admitted on Tuesday. It could be another classic final.
